I am currently building a physics engine in MMF2, and I have used (and renamed) a large amount of the alterable values of my active object to do it. Specifically I have used A to V (1 to 22 out of 26). My concern is that there will be very few alterable values left over for handling gameplay related tasks. Thus I have the following questions.
1: Does anyone know if there is an object that is equivalent to an active object but with more alterable values?
2: Would it be difficult to make to an active object with more alterable values as an extension? (I presume one would need the source code for the original active object, and I don’t know off hand if it has been released.)
3: Is there any tried and true work around for this problem that? (e.g. Using an objects "fixed value" or an "alterable value spread" to store and retrieve values in an array.)
4: Is there any work around at all that will allow the storage of floating point numbers? (e.g. Again, using an objects "fixed value" or an "alterable value spread" to store and retrieve values in an array, and using the "Store Float" object to do the conversions.)
5: Does anyone know if there is a version of MMF2 coming that will allow a user specified number of alterable values, or at the very least, more?
6: Most ideally, does anyone know if there is a work around that does not involve more extension objects? (e.g. Create some twin active object that does nothing but store alterable values, and associate it with the objects by "fixed value". Sort of like making a linked list.)
I don’t know why there are only 26 alterable values to begin with. If the concern was memory, why not just make the default 26, and allow the user to specify a different number as they desire. It seams like the only thing that would have to change, is that all the appropriate hard coded appearances of 26 throughout MMF2’s alterable value code could be replaced with a variable whose value is taken from some option box in the object’s properties. After all, it was already changed from 3 to 26 between MMF and MMF2.
I have already tried using the following objects:
Array: It can’t store string based keys, and as such is not as useful for storing and retrieving variable data by variable name.
Array 3D: Again, it can’t store string based keys, and thus no variable names.
Associative Array: Very cool extension, but is doesn’t seem to store floats.
Named Variables: Again, a very nice object, but it doesn’t appear to store floats.
I am currently working on using the LUA (programming language) in the hopes that I might be able to dimension a few arrays to store the extra data. Just the same, I would prefer an alternative solution.
At any rate, any help would be appreciated.
Thanks.
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